The Brooklyn Navy Yard is a center of urban manufacturing and innovation. A one-of-a-kind ecosystem with a legacy dating back to the early 1800s, the Yard has played a pivotal role in shaping American history, from its origins as a naval shipyard to its transformation into a dynamic, mission-driven industrial park. The Yard is a nationally acclaimed model of the viability and positive impact of modern, urban industrial development, employing more than 11,000 people and generating over $2.5 billion per year in economic impact for the city. Building on the Yard’s history as the economic heart of Brooklyn, the 300-acre waterfront asset houses more than 500 business and offers a critical pathway to the middle class for many New Yorkers.

Hudson River Park extends in and along four miles of Manhattan’s shoreline from about Chambers Street to West 59th Street and includes dozens of recreational and revenue-generating piers. Participants will walk along the water’s edge from Tribeca to the Meatpacking District, exploring many of the diverse, award-winning open spaces that have been created by the Hudson River Park Trust over the last 25 years, including the Pier 26 Tide Deck, the Tribeca Boardwalk, the Gansevoort Peninsula, and Little Island. The tour will end at historic Pier 57, a mixed-use, adaptive reuse project created in partnership with RXR and Google. 

The Sunset Park waterfront, once one of the busiest shipping ports in the country, today serves as a major industrial, manufacturing, and employment hub in NYC. The area’s continued prominence as a manufacturing center is due in part to the large footprint of publicly owned industrial campuses dedicated to preserving and growing the area’s manufacturing legacy. The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) manages more than 200 acres of this area including the Brooklyn Army Terminal (BAT), Made in New York Campus at Bush Terminal, and the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal. The Brooklyn Army Terminal was built in 1918 by Cass Gilbert and was originally used as an American military supply and troop deployment facility. Today, BAT is New York City’s premier affordable hub for innovative industrial businesses and entrepreneurs, serving more than 100 businesses and 4,000 employees. BAT is being positioned as a future home for climate innovators and industrial businesses developing and fabricating technologies that support climate solutions. The Made in New York Campus at Bush Terminal is undergoing an investment of more than $265 million to reposition this historic shipping yard as a creative industrial hub with events facilities and public waterfront open space. Along with Industry City, a privately owned and operated creative industrial hub in Sunset Park, these campuses born out of the same historic shipping ports are being reimagined as modern industrial facilities supporting a vast workforce.

For over one hundred years, the Greenpoint waterfront in Brooklyn was a functioning lumberyard and industrial center. In 2005 the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Waterfront Rezoning connected the waterfront to the long-establish Greenpoint neighborhood, including acres of publicly accessible open space and waterfront promenades. One of the largest development sites along the waterfront is Greenpoint Landing – a 22-acre site situated along a half-mile of East River waterfront being master-planned and developed by Park Tower Group. When complete, Greenpoint Landing will include about 5,500 apartments (including much-needed affordable units), a sprawling waterfront park designed by Field Operations, a new school, and numerous local retail opportunities. In a joint venture, Park Tower Group and Brookfield Properties developed a total of 2,000 units across four development sites, including One Blue Slip (2018), Two Blue Slip (2020) and The BellSlip (2022), all designed by Handel Architects and Eagle & West (2022) designed by OMA. Park Tower Group joint ventured with L&M Development Partners on three stand-alone affordable buildings - 33 Eagle, 5 Blue Slip and 7 Bell Slip – all designed by Handel Architects, and with Rockefeller Group on The Dupont, designed by GKV Architects, which is the latest building to be constructed at Greenpoint Landing. This past summer, Park Tower Group unveiled their 374-unit fully affordable building at 35 Commercial Street, also designed by Handel Architects.

Long Island City (LIC) is New York City’s fastest growing neighborhood. The city is engaged in multiple efforts to support the neighborhood’s long-term transformation into a mixed-use district. The Hunter’s Point South project is transforming the Long Island City waterfront with improved infrastructure, an 11-acre waterfront park, and 5,000 total residential units, including 3,000 affordable housing units. In 2018, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) completed the waterfront park, featuring a green stormwater infrastructure, bicycle and pedestrian pathways, adult fitness equipment, a playground, and an art installation. In fall 2023, the city kicked off the One LIC neighborhood planning study, focusing on LIC’s northern Waterfront and the industrial business zone (IBZ) located between the Waterfront and Court Square. This project seeks to leverage city-owned sites for affordable housing, promote equitable economic development, add waterfront open space, and improve circulation around the neighborhood.

This tour will begin at Hunter’s Point South Park, move north along the LIC waterfront to Anable Basin, and conclude at the IBZ. 

Running for 1.3 miles along the Brooklyn side of the East River, Brooklyn Bridge Park has been a significant agent for transformation for the historic DUMBO neighborhood, iconic for its 19^th-century industrial architecture. Join us for a walking tour of the DUMBO waterfront, where we will explore the park’s unique resilience and sustainability efforts to create the best waterfront possible, becoming a case study for the new Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines. We will also visit several exciting adaptive reuse projects, that have taken long-abandoned 19^th-century waterfront warehouses and transformed them into vibrant cultural and commercial spaces for the community.